Paris (belatedly)

After much foot-dragging and delay, I present MES AVENTURES PARISIENNES:

I woke to the sound of my cell phone alarm at 4:30am Thursday. Ungodly. I had managed to throw some things in my canvas messenger bag the night before, so I only had to stumble to the bathroom, shove a toothbrush in my mouth, and go. Of course, the tube doesn't open til about 5:30am, which is when my train was set to leave from King's Cross/St. Pancras Internat'l. The buses were also apparently in the weird limbo time from when night buses stop and when day buses start, so I had to walk the 1.2 miles down Euston Road. Kind of scary.

BUT I did manage to make it in time for the train, and I proceeded to promptly pass out for the 2.5 hour journey, waking up only to register the misty morning fog of northern France. When I arrived at Gare du Nord, I was a little taken aback. No Parisian vista upon entering the city? Where's the Eiffel Tower? The neighborhood of the train station and my hostel is on the Rive Driote (north side of the Seine), in the 10eme arrondisement. Kind of bleak and built up, but who was I to complain, I was in PARIS.

After locating my hostel and dropping off my bag, I set off on a sightseeing tour of extravagant proportions. I checked out the exterior of the Louvre, rode around the Charles de Gaulle Etoile (where the Arc de Triomphe is) on a public bus at dizzying speeds, stood under the Tour Eiffel, and climbed Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur... all on only a few hours sleep!

The Paris metro was great, though. So much dirtier than the London Underground, with a faint, lingering smell of urine. My dad told me that the Brits, for all their politeness, have zero courtesy on the tube, which I haven't really seen much of, but SACRE BLEU the French are SO rude on the Metro. Literally, sardine city. For three days, it was hysterical, but I think I'd get sick of it really fast if I had to deal with it everyday. I got a three day "Paris Visite" pass, which meant unlimited access on all public transportation in central Paris. Suffice to say, I did a lot of riding around and sightseeing on public buses.

Day two was LOUVRE DAY. For only 9 euro, I was able to see thousands of the old masterpieces (see Facebook for photographic evidence). My favorite memory was wandering around the Napoleon III Apartements at about 9am... because there was NO ONE ELSE THERE. That changed by about 10am, when the place became inundated with tourists of all nationalities. It felt a little like a scavenger hunt, simply because there is SO MUCH to see and not nearly enough time. The Salle de Rembrandt was pretty phenomenal, as was the Sphinx and the Venus de Milo... I could have done without the absurdity of the Mona Lisa... but I did see it!

Day three involved a coffee stop at La Coupole, a famous restaurant/cafe near Montparnasse where the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Lenin, and Trotsky dined and discusses ex-pat things... like Communism. It felt very modern, but I tried to imagine the place as it might have been then. Apparently the food is to die for, but again, I only had a coffee. I also went to La Cimetiere de Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetary in Paris, where TONS of people (famous and otherwise) are buried. Speaking of scavenger hunts, there was a little info map at the main entrance of the cemetary... basically how to locate the graves of famous people. I saw the graves of Chopin, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Very cool, but kind of creepy as a tourist activity. An early afternoon departure meant my time was cut short, though I did manage to see Notre Dame (but not Sainte Chapelle) before I left.

Paris was lovely, but I think in terms of my city rankings, London is higher. It's cleaner, and the museums are all (mostly) free. Maybe it's the propensity for rebellion that Paris has about its character. I did witness a riot outside the Barbes-Rochechouart metro station, which was a little scary. A great three-day weekend trip, but I don't think I'd want to live there. Getting to speak French was pretty cool, though.